Saturday, December 5, 2015

Scleroderma And The Kidneys (part 1 of 2)

Scleroderma means hard skin when directly translated. It is a disease that would cause the surfaces of your skin and other organs to harden into scar tissue and would usually involve pain and a lot of problems that would involve the affected organs. Scleroderma is most common in women that are between the ages 30 to 60 and rarely happens to children.

At most times, scleroderma would only affect a portion of the skin and is usually visible by tight skin in the face and on the fingers. If it starts affecting the organs, then that is a more sever case known as systemic sclerosis. This may affect the lungs, heart, intestines and the kidney. If the kidney is affected by sclerosis, this would limit the kidney’s functions and as well could cause some pain to the patient. It could however be managed and dealt with medical approaches to scleroderma kidney involvement.

What Causes Scleroderma?

As of today, there is still no known cause for scleroderma. Medical experts however have developed numerous theories in attempt of knowing what the causes are. Some would say that it is largely genetic and that a patient of scleroderma would indicate that his or her relatives are also at danger of developing it. Another would say that it is largely environmental and that it is caused by factors that are influenced by the environment surrounding the patient.

A medical expert also theorized with the common category being women aged 30 to 60 as a basis that the fetal remnants left over that are still circulating in the bloodstream can cause sclerosis even after decades after giving birth. None of these theories however have been proven and as of now, the cause of sclerosis still remains unknown and is yet to be found.